ABSTRACT
To explore the effects of the physiological range of hydrostatic pressure on human bladder smooth muscle cells (HBSMCs) cultured in vitro, we used a hydrostatic compression device designed in our laboratory into the experiments, which were grouped by varied hydrostatic pressure gradients. Cellular morphology was observed with HE staining; cytoskeleton F-actin, cell cycle, both proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and matrix metalloproteinase 7 (MMP-7) were detected respectively with immunofluorescence, flow cytometry and RT-PCR. We found that the proliferation, cytoskeleton and cycle distribution of HBSMCs were not obviously different among the groups of different hydrostatic pressure; however, the mRNA expression of MMP-7 exhibited a trend of first increasing and then declining as the pressure gradually rises. Thus the physiological range of hydrostatic pressure may not have significant influence on proliferation, morphology, skeleton, and cell cycle of HBSMCs, but it may have great effect on the expression of MMP-7.